Abstract

The transmission of knowledge and skills within the working-class household greatly troubled social commentators and social policy experts during the first half of the nineteenth century. To prove theories which related criminality to failures in working-class up-bringing, experts and officials embarked upon an ambitious collection of data on incarcerated criminals at various penal institutions. One such institution was the County Gaol at Ipswich. The exceptionally detailed information that survives on families, literacy, education and apprenticeships of the men, women and children imprisoned there has the potential to transform our understanding of the nature of home schooling (broadly interpreted) amongst the working classes in nineteenth-century England. This article uses data sets from prison registers to chart both the incidence and ‘success’ of instruction in reading and writing within the domestic environment. In the process, it highlights the importance of schooling in working-class families, but also the potentially growing significance of the family in occupational training.

Item Type:

Journal Item

Copyright Holders:

2015 Taylor & Francis

ISSN:

1465-3915

Project Funding Details:

Funded Project Name

Project ID

Funding Body

Mapping the education of the poor in nineteenth-century Suffolk

A-11-073-RC

Marc Fitch Fund

Extra Information:

Special Issue: Home education 1750–1900: domestic pedagogies in England and Wales in historical perspective

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